Leonid Slutsky apologised to Hull City supporters after seeing his side surrender to an embarrassing 5-0 defeat at Derby County.

The Tigers served up a wretched performance at the iPro Stadium, conceding five unanswered goals to lose for the third time in four Championship games.

A Matej Vydra brace sandwiched Seb Larsson’s penalty miss in the first half before Derby pulled further clear through the goals of former City captain Curtis Davies and Bradley Johnson to lead 4-0 at the break.

Johnson’s second just before the hour mark inflicted the heaviest defeat of Slutsky’s professional career and City’s head coach was in a contrite mood.

“First of all, I must apologise to all of our supporters because they don’t deserve this result,” said Slutsky.

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“I am very disappointed and sorry. It’s my fault when the team loses. I am angry with myself.

“It is very difficult to explain my emotions right now. We have lost 5-0 and it’s the biggest defeat in my professional career.

“Nobody will believe in this team but I must change the situation. I am not a robot, I am a human. And this is a very difficult time. I have to keep a responsibility. This (result) was an unbelievable surprise.”

A fortnight after delivering a handsome 4-0 win over Bolton, City were desperately disappointing when humbled by Derby.

Conceding three goals inside the final 11 minutes of the first half proved decisive and extended a sorry run to 21 league games without a win away from home.

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Slutsky’s decision to hand full debuts to Jon Toral, Stephen Kingsley and Nouha Dicko, as well as recalling the fit-again Markus Henriksen, backfired but the head coach will only look forward after the horror show in the East Midlands.

“It’s not a problem of changes or no changes,” added Slutsky. “If we are thinking about the past, we won’t have a future.

“This match is history. Not a good history for me because this was the biggest defeat of my coaching career. But I must prepare the team for the future. All my thinking is about the next match.”

Sebastian Larsson of Hull City holds his head after he hits his penalty kick over the bar during the Championship match at Derby (Image: Alan Stanford/Focus Images)

That will come when City travel to Fulham Wednesday to face one of the favourites for promotion at Craven Cottage but a demanding run will also see the Tigers face Sunderland and Reading in the next fortnight.

“It’s a very difficult and important time because the next match will show how we react to unbelievable stress,” said Slutsky.

“I can’t think about this match and the mistakes. More important is the next match to prepare hard. It is possible to fall down but it’s important to stand up quickly. In Russia we say it’s better to lose one time 5-0 than five times 1-0.”